MORNING PAGES

The first two ideas are taken from ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron.

This book is a 12 week course that encourages creativity. It sounds off
the wall, however she claims it is possible to teach creativity. And I have to
agree: all the exercises are sound. And good fun. Not too convoluted and easy
to do.

The basis of the whole system however are two exercises: the morning
pages and the Artist’s Date (next paragraph).

Morning pages means: write three A4 pages, in the morning, by hand.
About what you might ask. Whatever comes into your head. This is more a
cleansing exercise, simply keep writing. If you write: I don’t want to do the
morning pages, I don’t want to do the morning pages, I don’t want to do the
morning pages; then that’s ok. You could use it for anything, like your daily
planning, your ideas for your theses, anything. However you don’t have do it.
Directionless is key here.

It is not important what you write, it is only important that you
write. Get up half an hour earlier and do those pages.

It may seem like an effort (and believe I am one of them who finds
getting up in the morning is not easy), however the rewards are great.

My own experience is this: I find that I have more energy all day long;
I have more ideas; yes, I am more creative. Whenever I have a bigger project I
could not do without them. I cannot explain it properly, however something
good, something creative is happening in my head, and I am lot more productive.